What if I told you that your success was dependent on what you did every morning?

I feel that waking up early sets the tone of making a choice for my day. If I leave it to fate as to when I roll out of bed, then I feel like that’s the outlook I’m taking in general. On the other hand, if I choose to get up early and do amazing things in those quiet hours, that’s when I feel like I’m grabbing hold of my life and controlling where I go. That’s the choice I want to make.

— Joel Gascoigne, CEO Buffer

Unfortunately, for most people their morning looks like rush hour in New York City. You know what I am talking about:

You're racing to take a shower.

You're racing to make breakfast.

You're racing to get the kids dressed.

You're racing to get to work on time.

By adopting this type of morning routine, you become a slave to every urgency, emergency, and last minute issue, that comes up. So nothing you "planned" to get done -- gets done.

But what if I told you that small changes in your morning routine could help you have a more productive morning? Something as simple as waking up before 5AM to meditate or exercise or work on that eBook allows you to make an active choice to be more productive.

This is what my morning routine looks like:

Wake up at 4-ish

Make a cup of coffee

Yoga -- 20 minutes

Journal - Five Minute Journal

Meditate -- 7 minutes

Shave, shower, and get dressed

Make breakfast for the boys, oatmeal with fresh fruits; for me

Get my son ready for school

Leave the house to drop off my son at school

Spend the next 4 hours doing creative work

Following this morning schedule allows me to focus on work that is most important. In essence allowing me to be very productive in the morning.

In this infographic by Entrepreneur Magazine, they give you a guide to building a morning ritual. I suggest that you adopt one task at a time, until it becomes a habit before picking up another task.